Mozilla has sounded the death knell for the concept of the app store, predicting that they will die following the release of its mobile version of Firefox, Fennec.

Tough talk, but the company reckons that apps create problems for developers who have to recreate the same thing on multiple platforms, dealing with rejections and a different interface and contral method for different phones.

Instead, Jay Sullivan, vice president of mobile at Mozilla, said: "I think they'll move to the web. In the interim period, apps will be very successful. Over time, the web will win because it always does".

While the web has had many successes in replacing apps - most notably in contact management (social networks) video watching (YouTube, iPlayer) and email (webmail). However, some apps, like music playback, have stayed resolutely on the desktop.

Fennec is promising a similar "Awesomebar" to Firefox on the desktop, as well as tab synchronization and add-ons for mobile. Fennec is available on the N900, and versions for Android and Windows Mobile are due to arrive next year.

Update: Mozilla's head of mobile, Jay Sullivan, has written a blog post to try and retract the rather bold claim above a little way. He says: "Native apps and Web apps will coexist", and that "the web is bigger than any one browser".